Eventfull Day

Eventful Day

Fridge

I am still in the process of getting my refrigerator fixed and it is turning into a grand debacle. As I explained last week the compressor has stopped working properly. See this post for the beginning details. The Best buy repair service called me up last Tuesday to set up my repair, the customer service person put me on hold and kept me there for over 30 minutes. When she comes back to the line to check on me she says that the repair service will give me a call in two days as I was unwilling to hold any longer. Two days later I get another call from the customer service person who then wants to put me back in the queue for a long wait. I had had enough…I had already gone over my cell time by 100 minutes. I couldn’t talk to her and I aggressively explained to her how upset I was by the very poor customer service. She apologized, although, I know it wasn’t her fault and she said some one would call me back the next day. The next day (Friday) I never got a call back…so I tried them at 9pm while I was driving and I was able to speak to a person in only twenty minutes. It felt like a Christmas miracle. The routing guy said he could have someone at my house on Thursday 09/11 to make the repair. I responded that I have already been without a working fridge for two weeks was there anything he could do to get me scheduled sooner. He said the soonest he could make it was Tuesday 09/09. The other trick with this repair is I have to wait for a call from the repairman from 7am-9am to see my scheduled repair time. I had to wait at home this morning for the call because I didn’t want to get to work and have to turn back around. So the call arrives at 9:05 to tell me that my repair will commence between 11:30am and 1:30pm. I give a big sigh and head out to work for 1.5 hours. I arrive back at home at 11:30 to wait for the repairmen. They arrive about 12:30 and bring in all of their equipment and start to prepare for their work. About 10 minutes after they arrive they call me into the kitchen to tell me that they cannot repair my fridge today. I about came unglued. They said that the compressor that they had ordered me is also broken and that they would have to order me another new compressor and they would come and repair it as soon as it arrives. I just couldn’t believe it. Why does stupid stuff like this have to happen? I am going to have to take additional time to schedule the next repair as well as take more time off of work to be at home. I am seriously PO’ed at Best Buy!

Brother

While I was at work today for a mere 1.5 hours I get a call from my long lost Brother Ron. I have not spoken to him in about 2.5 years. Our last contact involved an incident with a TV and we parted ways on strained terms. Ron moved to California about 5 years ago and left his big 32 inch TV with me and told me that I could have it and it in the future he needed a TV he would take my 20 inch in exchange. I fully believed that this TV was mine to keep. Apparently it wasn’t. In the meantime he had moved to North Carolina and got married and had a baby. So on an unannounced trip north he dropped by my place unexpectedly for a visit. The primary purpose for this visit was to collect the TV. I was not interested in giving him the TV as I believed that it belonged to me. We both behaved like babies and he left with the TV. I hadn’t spoke to him since, although, I have been in some contact with his new wife via email on occasion.

So, he called me today in the middle of the big repair turmoil to ask if I wanted to meet him, his wife and child for lunch as they are driving through Indianapolis today. I explained my repair issue and told him that they were welcome to come to my house to visit but I couldn’t meet them anywhere. I was amazed and surprised to get this call out of the blue. They arrived at my house about five minutes prior to the repairman visit and we sat in the living room awkwardly chatting. One of the first things that they told me is that I have been addressing their son by the wrong name for the last 3.5 years. I guess I had thought that his name was Michael but it really is Matthew. I was still sending birthday, Halloween and Christmas cards to the child. I was really embarrassed! How could I have addressed this child by the wrong name for so long? After we got past this and the repairmen left, I went to lunch with them. Ron’s wife is Chinese and is from Hong Kong , so she was hungry for some good Chinese food. I took them to my favorite Chinese place, King Chef on 96th street and as we were leaving she had a 15 minute conversation with one of the employees in Chinese. We enjoyed our lunch and I was pleased to see them and rekindle a bit of our familyness (am aware that this probably isn’t a work). I will have to keep this in mind and take more time to stay in contact with them in North Carolina .

Cheesecake Incident

One of my co-workers was selling cheesecakes as a fundraiser for her teenager’s school. I didn’t buy any but there was an incident with them at work. The cheesecakes arrived this week and she brought them to work and stored them in the lunchroom freezer so that the employees could pick them up. When the last person went to pick up his the package was opened and someone had removed a piece of the cake. G was furious and couldn’t understand why someone would do that. She sent an email to one of our executives that prompted the following email:

Last Thursday several cheesecakes that had been sold as a part of a child’s fund raiser were put in the freezers to be picked up by their owners. They were all marked with the owner’s name. One of them was opened and partially eaten by a thief. It is hard to think that we have someone in our family who would violate the trust that we have put in them by doing this.

The cost of the cheesecake is $13. The thief needs to put $13 in an envelope and slide it under the warehouse/mailroom door by this time tomorrow. Kenny will bring it to me. If you know who did this, you may want to let them know that this is expected of them or you can let me know who it is and I will take care of the situation.

Let your conscience be your guide.

WTG

It is funny to me how people react to these types of emails. The person next to me was convinced that it was someone on the cleaning staff because she couldn’t imagine a co-worker doing this. I find it funny how someone can accuse someone of a perceived lower station or job just because they clean bathrooms and speak Spanish. I immediately defended them and said that I could be anyone. People are strange and they will do anything. The next day we get the following email:

Yesterday we thought the worst of one of our fellow passengers here on the SS Key Family with the great cheesecake incident. This morning when Kenny opened up the mailroom door, there was an envelope on the floor with cash and a note. The note said that the person had seen an email saying that there was free food in the café and he/she thought the cheesecake was part of it. The person sincerely apologized and as an act of good faith, provided not just the $13 for the cheesecake but paid with a $20 bill with the note to put the extra $7 in the Riley Wagon for the kids.

Mistakes happen. How we step up to admit and then atone for those mistakes is the measure of the person. Whoever this was, they can be a passenger here with me at anytime.

OCC

Now I come to the funniest part of the story. The person who bought the cheesecake that was eaten did receive a new one to take home. He took it home yesterday and when he got up this morning his dad had eaten the entire cheesecake while he was sleeping. I don’t think that B was destined to eat the cheesecake.